With Children in the Mirror

Zinaida Serabriakova  "Self-Portrait with Children in the Mirror"  1917 Private Collection

For some reason I can't stop thinking about the Russian artist Zinaida Serebriakova (1884-1967) lately, and some kind soul sent me this painting which I had never seen before. So, something about Serabriaova's tender attachment to her children is in the air right now.

Serabriakova came from an illustrious art family but suffered much upheaval in her life, including the early loss of her husband, banishment to another country and concomitant separation from her beloved children. I am amazed nobody has turned this woman's life into a movie yet.. she was really something and lived through a lot of world changes. To see my earlier post on this artist click here or just click on her name in the side bar.

With Daughters

Zinaida Serebriakova  "Self Portrait with Daughters"  1921 

The Russian painter Zinaida Serebriakova (1884-1967) painted this self-portrait posed with her daughters Ekatarina and Tatiana about two years after the death of her husband Boris from typhus. Shortly after completing this piece, now in the collection of the Rybinsk History and Art Museum, times would become so difficult for Serebryakova that she would be forced to give up oil painting, unable to afford the necessary materials and finding it difficult to sell her work during this period of Russian Civil War. 

In 1924 she traveled to Paris where she had obtained a large commission, and then found herself unable to return to Russia. Her mother took care of her four children back in Moscow. At some point Serebryakova managed to get the two younger children out of the country to join her in France, but she was unable to secure the necessary permissions for the two oldest, who remained in Russia. It was not until 1960 that Serebryakova was reunited with her oldest daughter Tatiana Borisovna Serebriakova (1912-1989.)